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Judge dismisses felony charges against 2 ex-officers in Breonna Taylor case

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Two former Louisville Kentucky police officers who faced criminal charges in the death of Breonna Taylor were not on the scene the night that police killed her in 2020, but federal prosecutors argue those officers lied to obtain the search warrant that led to her death. Now, a federal judge has rejected that argument and dismissed some of the charges against those officers. Jared Bennett of the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting has this update.

JARED BENNETT, BYLINE: A lot went wrong before police shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her Louisville apartment. But according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Taylor might still be alive today if it wasn't for a falsified search warrant obtained by former Louisville Police officers Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany. Judge Charles Simpson ruled last week that it wasn't the search warrant but the shot Taylor's boyfriend fired in officers' direction that caused her death, because that's what prompted police to return fire. Chanelle Helm, with the Louisville chapter of Black Lives Matter, says she wasn't surprised that the judge dismissed the most serious charges against the officers.

CHANELLE HELM: Were they going to actually land on a verdict for those charges? Yeah, I had no hopes that they would do that in the first place.

BENNETT: David Harris teaches criminal law at the University of Pittsburgh.

DAVID HARRIS: We have a lot of trouble in this country holding police accountable when we can tell as civilians that things went terribly wrong, and somebody is responsible for it.

BENNETT: But Harris says it's clear the DOJ is taking the case seriously.

HARRIS: The fact that you saw them pursuing those very aggressive charges that the judge has just thrown out, I mean, I think that shows that they are trying to do the most that they can do in this case.

BENNETT: Jaynes and Meany still face misdemeanor charges related to the search warrant and other felony charges for allegedly covering up misconduct related to Taylor's death. The DOJ says it's considering next steps. Taylor's family, in a written statement, says they are devastated by the judge's decision to reduce the charges. The only thing they can do now, they say, is continue to be patient.

For NPR News, I'm Jared Bennett in Louisville.

(SOUNDBITE OF GOGO PENGUIN'S "FORT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Jared Bennett